*whew*

[hedda62]

I have posted ten fics in less than two months, for a total of 54,617 words.* (Not counting the Snapefic, since I wrote that long ago.) This is extraordinary. This is not what I do, and yet.

(This is taking avoidance to absurd levels, George says in my head. Well, yes. Perhaps I will post the first chapter of Time for Tea on AO3, as an incentive to work on getting published. And to stop the mutters and maledictions about Simon Illyan and James Hathaway. Shut up, kiddo; I still love you best.)

(Parenthetically speaking, along with the other id-junk that fanfic allows me to indulge in, I note that I am still fascinated by 29-and-30-year-olds. Not that I don't enjoy writing about people of many other ages that I don't have two decades on, but there is that pull, witness George in TFT and Olivia in the next two books, and how much I adore Miles in Memory, and quite a few other examples. My personal fanon says that Hathaway turns 30 about the time of "The Great and the Good," and that Simon's 30th is completely overshadowed by the crises of the Pretendership. raven says it very well in Hold, or has Cordelia say it, comparing 30-year-old Simon to five-year-old Gregor: "The fierce growth is over. Now the pause to regroup, now the long haul." That's what draws me, I think. Not that everyone's not on their own schedule.)

I am also hugging the Vorkosiverse (and its attached fandom) tightly to me and committing sins of darkness with it, because I am BACK, baby. (Still loving "Lewis" too! Will write more at some point!) And despite avoiding them for ages, I love promptfests, because where else would I get such wacky and wonderful story ideas? Both of the prompts I wrote for this time (more may happen. Possibly. But not by the deadline) made me laugh out loud when I saw them, and turned into things lengthy and wistful, which is how I work best. And I love the expansiveness of the universe we have to play with: hundreds of years and an entire galaxy, really, not that I've ventured out of canon chronology (or its immediate aftermath) much, or off of Barrayar. I have actually wrapped myself pretty firmly around the Residence and the cemetery at Vorkosigan Surleau, which are not bad places to be anchored while gazing up at the stars.

I just really want to write about everybody in the Vorkosiverse. If only I had the time.

*ETA: what's funny about that is, "Trust Issues" is 617 words, so without that one I would have exactly 54K.

Comments

[philomytha]

You've been impressively prolific! And in lots of fandoms, too - I can only manage one, with maybe some tiny offshoots in others. But as you say, there's no shortage of room in the Vorkosiverse, both chronologically and physically.

Now I have to coax you to write about Duv. Or, you know, there is a Gregor/Miles D/s prompt for the ficathon...

[hedda62]

Oh, you would bring that up. Yes. I know there is. Ha.

It's been interesting working in different fandoms and picking up little resonances, or maybe just places where my obsessions find echoes. There is, for example, every difference between Aral/Simon and Lewis/Hathaway, except that I do like to imagine both junior partners calling the older one "sir" in bed.

Duv I could do more with, yes.

[philomytha]

Well, it's that despite the epic fics about them, I never believed the pairing was possible until 'Fathers and Sons' and your D/s hints there and analysis afterwards.

Based on one episode of Lewis and some fic-reading: yeah, not a lot in common with Aral and Simon except for a few odd little resonances. But Lewis and Hathaway are definitely adorable in their own right.

And there's no shortage of things to say about Duv!

[hedda62]

Environment clearly has a lot to do with certain aspects of character. I think if you plunked Robbie Lewis down in Barrayar at birth as a Vor he might end up something like Aral, though not as magnificent as a character who has a universe built around him, naturally. But that is to speculate unreasonably. (I have no idea what James Hathaway would turn out like. A completely Barrayaran version of Duv, perhaps.)

Which episode did you see?

[philomytha]

Oh, now you're asking. I don't remember the name. It featured a biochemist making drugs in his basement to treat his wife, and a couple of wannabe Goth students and an evil chaplain, and Hathaway flirting with the gardener at the Botanic Gardens who found the body, and Lewis bonding with a woman who was grieving for her dead son. It seemed to stand alone pretty well.

[hedda62]

6.1 "The Soul of Genius." :)

They do all pretty much stand alone, which is something I regret about the show; more continuity would be nice and would allow for the background relationships to really go somewhere (though probably not where the ficcers want them to, ha).